On Saturn there's Guardian Heroes and Radiant Silvergun, both games I've always really liked and immediately got the hang of.
And then there's this game...
My first time playing this I felt like I was fighting the game mechanics, I often felt like I was missing something.
I really struggled my way through this game, brute forcing my way to the end while throwing away multiple continues. I didn't understand why it couldn't just be a straightforward run-&-gun or action platformer, it seemed like the added mechanics just got in the way.
It was so frustrating and exhausting to play. I just saw it as the one weak link in the developer's history.
And so this game just sat on my shelf for many years and I'd always remember it as that weird mediocre treasure game.
Only now after coming back to it years later and finally understanding how to play it I feel qualified to write this review.
Silhouette Mirage comes from a developer that is most known for out-of-the-box ideas and experimental game design, and this is one of their games that pushes things even further than usual.
Silhouette Mirage is a misunderstood game, and I also misunderstood it.
This game is deceptively esoteric and deceptively genious. So much so that it took many playthroughs before I finally "got it"
Silhouette Mirage has a color polarity system but the player can't just easily change color at the press of a button you have to face left or right, it's the kind of idea that seems arbitrary and unique for the sake of being unique at first. It's easy to write the mechanics of this game off as shallow the game can almost feel mechanically confused, but the truth is that it isn't just a gimmick, most mechanics are deep and thoughtfully designed.
That's how the game is deceptive, before I really learned the deeper skills and mechanics I assumed that jumping over enemies and trying to move around them was a effective way to play, instead it's all about manipulating and forcing enemies into places where they are at a disadvantage, in other words move the enemy not yourself. It's counter-intuitive to the the way most games would go about something like this. There's a lot of depth to this idea, and it does work in practice once it's properly understood. Many of the bosses in the game feel the same way, before I understood their gimmick, patterns, or weakness they seem tedious and unfair but now they're fun to fight and a reasonable challenge. It's a huge contrast in difficulty all coming from the mechanics themselves. Nothing about Silhouette Mirage is minimal or simple.
This is primarily a run-and-gun game, but it feels a lot like a beat-em-up in some aspects with how spacing is used, it's really important to navigate around enemies and push them into place to control the situation.
You can shoot enemies with the same color and it won't do damage, it might seem like a waste but what this actually does is drain their energy, my first time playing I didn't understand the utility of this and only tried to damage them, it's really important to drain some enemies of all their power first.
It's a really clever layer added to this mechanic, instead of just aggressively attacking everything the game has a focus on disarming your opponent first, so you can get in closer and deal heavier damage. The game prioritizes defense and patience in a really unique way there's not really any run-and-gun game that does things like this. Silhouette is certainly no Contra or Metal Slug, you can't just run in and blast away groups of enemies.
Once an enemy or boss is disarmed they usually have no attacks they can do anymore leaving them open to being grabbed, you can grab and thow almost any enemy and boss which is important for controlling the battle and spacing, but the player can punch money out of enemies and bosses while grabbing them.
This leads to some grinding for shops where you can buy healing items and upgrade weapons, it's essential to have a chance against harder bosses later into the game, there's another layer of resource management added to everything that's already going on here.
It's a lot to keep track of and will keep the majority of players from enjoying it. This is definitely not a game for everyone, I think it has a niche appeal. It's a very demanding, complicated, and punishing action game.
As well as everything works and how well planned and developed many aspects of the game are, there are some serious problems that skill alone can't fix.
My first time actually getting to the final level of the game I was experimenting with weapons and ended up stuck with the Bomb weapon named Angara, the massive problem with this is that Angara can only hit ground targets, you see the final few bosses are exclusively airborne... I could not hit them, I had no chance. My entire playthrough ended right there at no real fault of my own, because the weapon system is so under-developed and unbalanced. The game can be very frustrating like this and not in a satisfying way, there's a smoke/toxic weapon and a targeting homing shot that both take too much setup when you could just get much higher DPS with anything else and worst of all weapons give enemies knockback. This is no issue with the standard shot, Laser, or boomerang, but the rest just hit once launching the enemy away while the rest of the attack misses.
There's no reason not to just use half the weapons.
If I had to pick out the most significant weakness from Treasure as a developer, the most significant and recurring problem that can show up in many of their games, it would be over reliance on gimmicks and one-off ideas.
committing too hard to an idea at the detriment of pacing or enjoyability, at times it's as if they thought the idea was too good of a concept not too put in the game without considering if it's worth including to begin with. I always reward a game for creativity and I think they deserve some credit for trying and experimenting with new ideas, but those ideas can't always be good. Sometimes it's possible to go too far in that direction, I think they get a bit carried away at times.
I think this flaw is the worst demonstrated in this game, often it's just one or maybe two bosses in their games that have this issue but here I can count at least six that do this, it's a lot to explain as the scenarios can be very specific, so I'll let parts from my latest playthrough (on very hard) speak for itself. It's as fun as it looks (so not at all)
SPOILERS FOR FINAL BOSS
https://youtu.be/rUB-91LxKeE
Whenever there's a boss exclusively in the background it's just dreadful, both of those go on for five or more minutes as the player is just waiting around for them to damage themselves.
You would want a game like this to scale in difficulty gradually and naturally, with a few exceptions that's true here and the game overall is challenging, but the semi-final boss is an absurd massive spike in difficulty, and it's fought right after another very hard boss being the third one in a row with no heals or shops in between, it's especially cruel design and it artificially lead to most of my playthroughs ending early.
As it turns out the key to actually fighting them is just holding reflect or attack in the corner, like a lot of the gimmicky parts of the game figuring it out is the challenge but once that's over with it's just pathetic, fighting it knowing the solution just takes all the challenge and skill away. The most mindless nothing kind of gameplay.
For every 3 great boss fights there's a really bad one, the bosses that are straightforward to fight end up being the most fun and thankfully they make up the majority of the game, many have a clever gimmick that just helps or makes it much easier without getting in the way or ruining the overall flow and there are a lot of them, not all boss fights are bad there's a lot of very memorable and fun ones.
I have a lot to complain about in terms of gameplay, but I can't complain at all about the presentation
graphically it's a nice looking game with charming and unique character designs, they're about as unusual as the rest of the game, every level takes place in a very different environment from the others and there's a lot of imaginative and appealing locations, it's nowhere near the spectacle or scope one would expect from Treasure, nothing mind blowing or awe inspiring but it's still above average and the game is very distinct.
The soundtrack is catchy it's not my favorite but there are a few standout level themes and it's well varied
Overall the game has a very unique character and style with a strange and complicated plot to go along with it
Despite being complicated the game is responsive and has many moves to take control of any situation, it feels good to run up walls or slide and the character has a lot of air movement without being too "floaty"
Not every idea works well and it can be cumbersome a lot of times, there are some awful parts in this game that there's just no getting around. It's a game that has a lot to like but it takes a lot of work to learn to like this game. There's some really good bosses and levels here that are brought down by the bad ones I have a list of complaints with this game, but in the end it still has enough good ideas to make it worthwhile.
In spite of everything I appreciate that the developers took some risks, some ideas failed but without that first attempt they may have never learned from their mistakes, and maybe some of the later games that surpassed this one wouldn't have been made, if anything Silhouette Mirage is an extremely unique and unusual game that any action game fan should experience.
And then there's this game...
My first time playing this I felt like I was fighting the game mechanics, I often felt like I was missing something.
I really struggled my way through this game, brute forcing my way to the end while throwing away multiple continues. I didn't understand why it couldn't just be a straightforward run-&-gun or action platformer, it seemed like the added mechanics just got in the way.
It was so frustrating and exhausting to play. I just saw it as the one weak link in the developer's history.
And so this game just sat on my shelf for many years and I'd always remember it as that weird mediocre treasure game.
Only now after coming back to it years later and finally understanding how to play it I feel qualified to write this review.
Silhouette Mirage comes from a developer that is most known for out-of-the-box ideas and experimental game design, and this is one of their games that pushes things even further than usual.
Silhouette Mirage is a misunderstood game, and I also misunderstood it.
This game is deceptively esoteric and deceptively genious. So much so that it took many playthroughs before I finally "got it"
Silhouette Mirage has a color polarity system but the player can't just easily change color at the press of a button you have to face left or right, it's the kind of idea that seems arbitrary and unique for the sake of being unique at first. It's easy to write the mechanics of this game off as shallow the game can almost feel mechanically confused, but the truth is that it isn't just a gimmick, most mechanics are deep and thoughtfully designed.
That's how the game is deceptive, before I really learned the deeper skills and mechanics I assumed that jumping over enemies and trying to move around them was a effective way to play, instead it's all about manipulating and forcing enemies into places where they are at a disadvantage, in other words move the enemy not yourself. It's counter-intuitive to the the way most games would go about something like this. There's a lot of depth to this idea, and it does work in practice once it's properly understood. Many of the bosses in the game feel the same way, before I understood their gimmick, patterns, or weakness they seem tedious and unfair but now they're fun to fight and a reasonable challenge. It's a huge contrast in difficulty all coming from the mechanics themselves. Nothing about Silhouette Mirage is minimal or simple.
This is primarily a run-and-gun game, but it feels a lot like a beat-em-up in some aspects with how spacing is used, it's really important to navigate around enemies and push them into place to control the situation.
You can shoot enemies with the same color and it won't do damage, it might seem like a waste but what this actually does is drain their energy, my first time playing I didn't understand the utility of this and only tried to damage them, it's really important to drain some enemies of all their power first.
It's a really clever layer added to this mechanic, instead of just aggressively attacking everything the game has a focus on disarming your opponent first, so you can get in closer and deal heavier damage. The game prioritizes defense and patience in a really unique way there's not really any run-and-gun game that does things like this. Silhouette is certainly no Contra or Metal Slug, you can't just run in and blast away groups of enemies.
Once an enemy or boss is disarmed they usually have no attacks they can do anymore leaving them open to being grabbed, you can grab and thow almost any enemy and boss which is important for controlling the battle and spacing, but the player can punch money out of enemies and bosses while grabbing them.
This leads to some grinding for shops where you can buy healing items and upgrade weapons, it's essential to have a chance against harder bosses later into the game, there's another layer of resource management added to everything that's already going on here.
It's a lot to keep track of and will keep the majority of players from enjoying it. This is definitely not a game for everyone, I think it has a niche appeal. It's a very demanding, complicated, and punishing action game.
As well as everything works and how well planned and developed many aspects of the game are, there are some serious problems that skill alone can't fix.
My first time actually getting to the final level of the game I was experimenting with weapons and ended up stuck with the Bomb weapon named Angara, the massive problem with this is that Angara can only hit ground targets, you see the final few bosses are exclusively airborne... I could not hit them, I had no chance. My entire playthrough ended right there at no real fault of my own, because the weapon system is so under-developed and unbalanced. The game can be very frustrating like this and not in a satisfying way, there's a smoke/toxic weapon and a targeting homing shot that both take too much setup when you could just get much higher DPS with anything else and worst of all weapons give enemies knockback. This is no issue with the standard shot, Laser, or boomerang, but the rest just hit once launching the enemy away while the rest of the attack misses.
There's no reason not to just use half the weapons.
If I had to pick out the most significant weakness from Treasure as a developer, the most significant and recurring problem that can show up in many of their games, it would be over reliance on gimmicks and one-off ideas.
committing too hard to an idea at the detriment of pacing or enjoyability, at times it's as if they thought the idea was too good of a concept not too put in the game without considering if it's worth including to begin with. I always reward a game for creativity and I think they deserve some credit for trying and experimenting with new ideas, but those ideas can't always be good. Sometimes it's possible to go too far in that direction, I think they get a bit carried away at times.
I think this flaw is the worst demonstrated in this game, often it's just one or maybe two bosses in their games that have this issue but here I can count at least six that do this, it's a lot to explain as the scenarios can be very specific, so I'll let parts from my latest playthrough (on very hard) speak for itself. It's as fun as it looks (so not at all)
SPOILERS FOR FINAL BOSS
https://youtu.be/rUB-91LxKeE
Whenever there's a boss exclusively in the background it's just dreadful, both of those go on for five or more minutes as the player is just waiting around for them to damage themselves.
You would want a game like this to scale in difficulty gradually and naturally, with a few exceptions that's true here and the game overall is challenging, but the semi-final boss is an absurd massive spike in difficulty, and it's fought right after another very hard boss being the third one in a row with no heals or shops in between, it's especially cruel design and it artificially lead to most of my playthroughs ending early.
As it turns out the key to actually fighting them is just holding reflect or attack in the corner, like a lot of the gimmicky parts of the game figuring it out is the challenge but once that's over with it's just pathetic, fighting it knowing the solution just takes all the challenge and skill away. The most mindless nothing kind of gameplay.
For every 3 great boss fights there's a really bad one, the bosses that are straightforward to fight end up being the most fun and thankfully they make up the majority of the game, many have a clever gimmick that just helps or makes it much easier without getting in the way or ruining the overall flow and there are a lot of them, not all boss fights are bad there's a lot of very memorable and fun ones.
I have a lot to complain about in terms of gameplay, but I can't complain at all about the presentation
graphically it's a nice looking game with charming and unique character designs, they're about as unusual as the rest of the game, every level takes place in a very different environment from the others and there's a lot of imaginative and appealing locations, it's nowhere near the spectacle or scope one would expect from Treasure, nothing mind blowing or awe inspiring but it's still above average and the game is very distinct.
The soundtrack is catchy it's not my favorite but there are a few standout level themes and it's well varied
Overall the game has a very unique character and style with a strange and complicated plot to go along with it
Despite being complicated the game is responsive and has many moves to take control of any situation, it feels good to run up walls or slide and the character has a lot of air movement without being too "floaty"
Not every idea works well and it can be cumbersome a lot of times, there are some awful parts in this game that there's just no getting around. It's a game that has a lot to like but it takes a lot of work to learn to like this game. There's some really good bosses and levels here that are brought down by the bad ones I have a list of complaints with this game, but in the end it still has enough good ideas to make it worthwhile.
In spite of everything I appreciate that the developers took some risks, some ideas failed but without that first attempt they may have never learned from their mistakes, and maybe some of the later games that surpassed this one wouldn't have been made, if anything Silhouette Mirage is an extremely unique and unusual game that any action game fan should experience.
I have like, at least 100k characters at minimum at the ready everytime to explain why I love this game; But I'll just explain it very succinctly here.
Treasure's games are designed with a 'Turing-completeness' to their greater design space. A term coined by John Carmack when describing Doom, it is essentially a game that presents infinite possibilities. The producer and creator of this game, Kafuichi went on record stating he wanted to make an action game that wasn't strictly memorizable. And even though the combat is very unbalanced, the boss AI generally being easy to throw loop, he really did succeed. Even though the game's relatively easy, any challenge the game throws at you posits some of the most emergent gameplay I've ever seen.
The attribute mechanic is very introspective and just, COOL. I love how the zero teleport analog in this game can launch enemies, at a perfect angle where they'll get subsequently juggled, and you can grab them out of mid air and pole vault off of them or use their bodies as bullet soaking shields. Everything Shyna can do in this game is additive to it's core conceit. The difficulty might be a bit lopsided to some, the last few bosses being very particular. It kind of reminds me of Cave Story, how the bloodstained sanctuary tests muscles the game didn't build, because nothing else is quite like it. I still love this game to death. It's easily the coolest game ever created.
Treasure's games are designed with a 'Turing-completeness' to their greater design space. A term coined by John Carmack when describing Doom, it is essentially a game that presents infinite possibilities. The producer and creator of this game, Kafuichi went on record stating he wanted to make an action game that wasn't strictly memorizable. And even though the combat is very unbalanced, the boss AI generally being easy to throw loop, he really did succeed. Even though the game's relatively easy, any challenge the game throws at you posits some of the most emergent gameplay I've ever seen.
The attribute mechanic is very introspective and just, COOL. I love how the zero teleport analog in this game can launch enemies, at a perfect angle where they'll get subsequently juggled, and you can grab them out of mid air and pole vault off of them or use their bodies as bullet soaking shields. Everything Shyna can do in this game is additive to it's core conceit. The difficulty might be a bit lopsided to some, the last few bosses being very particular. It kind of reminds me of Cave Story, how the bloodstained sanctuary tests muscles the game didn't build, because nothing else is quite like it. I still love this game to death. It's easily the coolest game ever created.
Extremely experimental, to the point where it's a detriment to the game imo. The idea is really cool, but it's so much to keep track of, and it never, ever feels comfortable to do it all. Crouching, for example, takes a double-tap of the d-pad, and is the only way to do the offensive dash.
The pacing is also off because Treasure interrupts the stages constantly with cutscenes and story.
This Saturn version features limited continues, which is completely unhinged for a 1997 console game. I've played it because the English version of the PS1 release is a harder game, courtesy of Working Designs.
Overall, not sure if I actually enjoyed this. It sure is unique and I'm glad I've played it, but I don't want anything to do with it again.
The pacing is also off because Treasure interrupts the stages constantly with cutscenes and story.
This Saturn version features limited continues, which is completely unhinged for a 1997 console game. I've played it because the English version of the PS1 release is a harder game, courtesy of Working Designs.
Overall, not sure if I actually enjoyed this. It sure is unique and I'm glad I've played it, but I don't want anything to do with it again.
First you Silhouette. Then you Mirage.
A treasure game you'll learn to love and hate in 4 easy sessions.
This system is really well designed.
This final boss is bullshit.
This best weapon being in the first level is broken.
This game really knew what it was doing.
It's a microcosm of arcade game design sensibilities with the own-it-forever time economy of a console video game. That is to say, come for the stage spectacle, stay for the sense of mastery.
Very satisfying gameplay and characters that will make you smile.
A treasure game you'll learn to love and hate in 4 easy sessions.
This system is really well designed.
This final boss is bullshit.
This best weapon being in the first level is broken.
This game really knew what it was doing.
It's a microcosm of arcade game design sensibilities with the own-it-forever time economy of a console video game. That is to say, come for the stage spectacle, stay for the sense of mastery.
Very satisfying gameplay and characters that will make you smile.
SILHOUETTE MIRAGE.
Silhouette Mirage gives player agency and player-controlled pacing in such a unique way that I haven't experienced in any other run'n'gun/shoot 'em up game. The mechanics of the game are equally straightforward and brain-bendy: face one direction to fire red bullets; face the other direction to fire blue bullets; red bullets beat blue enemies; blue bullets beat red enemies.
Its difficulty curve is deviously unfurled as you build comfort in its controls and learn the nuances of the continue system. You are naturally led to learn these nuances by seeking out all of the game's endings. You are motivated to seek out these endings due to the game's involved, Xenosagian, Sin&Punishmentesque narrative wrapped in an approachable Saturday morning cartoon veneer. The game is hilarious. And it makes no sense. What the heck is up with this game! It's pretty darn fun though.
"Maybe I can play through this area without losing as much health this time... Maybe I can fight this boss without using a continue... Maybe I should focus on reflecting more than attacking... I wonder if it's better to be right-facing blue rather than red here... "
These thoughts end up coming naturally in the subsequent playthroughs and help unpack the matryoshkian layers of difficulty to the point where a level of unasked-for mastery has now been obtained and a certain "why not" attitude has been taken upon in seeking out all that the game has to offer.
Also, the soundtrack is a real banger.
Its difficulty curve is deviously unfurled as you build comfort in its controls and learn the nuances of the continue system. You are naturally led to learn these nuances by seeking out all of the game's endings. You are motivated to seek out these endings due to the game's involved, Xenosagian, Sin&Punishmentesque narrative wrapped in an approachable Saturday morning cartoon veneer. The game is hilarious. And it makes no sense. What the heck is up with this game! It's pretty darn fun though.
"Maybe I can play through this area without losing as much health this time... Maybe I can fight this boss without using a continue... Maybe I should focus on reflecting more than attacking... I wonder if it's better to be right-facing blue rather than red here... "
These thoughts end up coming naturally in the subsequent playthroughs and help unpack the matryoshkian layers of difficulty to the point where a level of unasked-for mastery has now been obtained and a certain "why not" attitude has been taken upon in seeking out all that the game has to offer.
Also, the soundtrack is a real banger.
My daughter Shyna she has 97 mental illnesses and is banned from most public spaces
Controls are wild and it's hard to keep track of which way you're facing (a bit of a problem since that's the core concept), but the plot and characters are so fucking absurd I love it
rough and kinda scuffed at times, but it becomes part of the charm. silly yet also impactful. treasure’s 5th gen endeavors interest me most because you could definitely tell they were mainly focusing on experimentation, but to what end? for fun? for something bigger? who knows! all i know is that they enjoyed making cool little unique weirdass action titles, and i enjoy playing them.
sorta like a proto-ikaruga only to a more extreme degree. you have two colors: red and blue. enemies have two colors: red and blue. you can only kill enemies with the opposite color shots, and the enemies can only hurt you with the opposite color shots. simple in concept, but actually playing it is like wrestling a bear. since this is treasure, you can’t just change colors on the fly, oh no. instead you have a corresponding color for each side of your body. wanna shoot blue? face left. wanna shoot red? face right. this essentially turns what would’ve been a basic run-&-gun into an almost puzzle-like platformer. you must have keen spacial awareness and consider your placement on the screen at all times. they will throw enemies of multiple colors at you at once. strategy is key to taking them all out quickly while managing to avoid taking damage yourself.
now, i wouldn’t exactly call this genius but it’s an incredibly interesting gimmick for a game of its nature and, i fuck with it. visually stunning as per treasure standard, utilizing the hardware to its fullest in animating some pristine spritework. the character designs are cutesy while still maintaining that degree of edge to intimidate. silhouette mirage is a very creative game at the end of the day. constantly bombarding you with distinct set-piece after wacky boss after confusingly sweet story beat. an intriguing one, for sure. definitely not for everyone but if you have some tolerance for experimental sidescrollers, give it a go. i honestly might prefer this to ikaruga.
sorta like a proto-ikaruga only to a more extreme degree. you have two colors: red and blue. enemies have two colors: red and blue. you can only kill enemies with the opposite color shots, and the enemies can only hurt you with the opposite color shots. simple in concept, but actually playing it is like wrestling a bear. since this is treasure, you can’t just change colors on the fly, oh no. instead you have a corresponding color for each side of your body. wanna shoot blue? face left. wanna shoot red? face right. this essentially turns what would’ve been a basic run-&-gun into an almost puzzle-like platformer. you must have keen spacial awareness and consider your placement on the screen at all times. they will throw enemies of multiple colors at you at once. strategy is key to taking them all out quickly while managing to avoid taking damage yourself.
now, i wouldn’t exactly call this genius but it’s an incredibly interesting gimmick for a game of its nature and, i fuck with it. visually stunning as per treasure standard, utilizing the hardware to its fullest in animating some pristine spritework. the character designs are cutesy while still maintaining that degree of edge to intimidate. silhouette mirage is a very creative game at the end of the day. constantly bombarding you with distinct set-piece after wacky boss after confusingly sweet story beat. an intriguing one, for sure. definitely not for everyone but if you have some tolerance for experimental sidescrollers, give it a go. i honestly might prefer this to ikaruga.
Estética de anime noventista, level design criativo e um conceito de jogabilidade que viria a ser visto em Ikaruga (afinal ambos são da mesma empresa, a Treasure), o que torna esse jogo bem recomendável. Mas aqui vai um aviso: dê preferência versão japonesa. Por algum motivo quando o jogo foi lançado no Ocidente, a publisher fez alterações nas mecânicas, visando aumentar a dificuldade. Limitou-se o uso de habilidades, diminui-se a quantidade de drops dos inimigos, fora aumentar o nível da IA. Tudo isso só tornou a experiência mais enfadonha, com grinding desnecessário e uma locomoção mais lenta pelas fases, praticamente jogando no lixo o level design original. Fora isso rolaram alguns cortes em referências cristãs que eram mato nos animes dos anos 90 mas que poderiam chocar as sensibilidades de geral no Ocidente, mas isso é o de menos. Tem no Saturn, perfeitinho, mas a versão de Psone é bem digna, e o jogo em si vale aquela conferidinha despretensiosa.
Screw Armageddon they were a pain in the US Version lmfao.
Regardless, I love this game. US version's changes are fucky but I really like that you can drain spirit from enemies and bosses.
Regardless, I love this game. US version's changes are fucky but I really like that you can drain spirit from enemies and bosses.
SM sees Treasure back on their shooter bullshit after some dabbling in other genres, though this time they make a point to slow things down (your character defaults to a ‘walk’ movement unless you double-tap a directional button, which is kind of infuriating) and add some color-based mechanics that foreshadow Ikaruga’s.
I kind of liked playing this; though I can’t see myself ever finishing it. I would’ve given 2.5 stars, but I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt since I played the supposedly broken Working Designs version. (In my few hours of playing I never once had enough coin to buy another parasite!).
If I pick it up again, I’ll def do the Japanese Saturn version.
PS— great music!!
I kind of liked playing this; though I can’t see myself ever finishing it. I would’ve given 2.5 stars, but I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt since I played the supposedly broken Working Designs version. (In my few hours of playing I never once had enough coin to buy another parasite!).
If I pick it up again, I’ll def do the Japanese Saturn version.
PS— great music!!
(Played Wiredcrackpot's recently released retranslation patch for the Saturn original)
This was an amazing translation, I genuinely didn't think it'd ever happen, but I'm so glad it did. The story is still pretty nuts but it feels so good to actually experience the proper personalities of the characters and the comedic timing of jokes on-screen. I loved this game so much already, but this retranslation patch is most certainly the best way to play it now.
The patch's existence makes Working Designs' handling of the script all the more apparent. While I do appreciate them bringing the game to the West back then, they really messed with character personalities, adding forced jokes that were never there, and scrubbing of biblical allegories that the original script had.
If you're interested in checking Silhouette Mirage out, I implore you to played Wiredcrackpot's retranslation patch. The game takes a bit to learn but you will not regret it.
This was an amazing translation, I genuinely didn't think it'd ever happen, but I'm so glad it did. The story is still pretty nuts but it feels so good to actually experience the proper personalities of the characters and the comedic timing of jokes on-screen. I loved this game so much already, but this retranslation patch is most certainly the best way to play it now.
The patch's existence makes Working Designs' handling of the script all the more apparent. While I do appreciate them bringing the game to the West back then, they really messed with character personalities, adding forced jokes that were never there, and scrubbing of biblical allegories that the original script had.
If you're interested in checking Silhouette Mirage out, I implore you to played Wiredcrackpot's retranslation patch. The game takes a bit to learn but you will not regret it.
Truly a novel concept for a side scroller with incredibly interesting designs but unfortunately slightly unrefined. It also has the classic Treasure CBT requirement/ difficulty spike of literally never getting a game over to get the real ending.
Still trying to beat this game.
Silhouette Mirage
This score is for the JP version. The Working Designs version gets, like, a 3?
This game is a fucking nightmare and I loved it. Dialogue had me crying laughing and then the game had me crying crying.
Also 100% the most obscure video game I've ever played.
Also 100% the most obscure video game I've ever played.
This game, along with a couple others in my life (notably La-Mulana), changed the course of my life. I doubt I would be the person I am if I had never played Silhouette Mirage. Sure, the controls are a little out there (who really needs upwards of ten different moves?), the difficulty is crazy and the voice clips are grating, but the character design and writing make up for it imo. Definitely worth playing at least once to see if you're into what it's putting down.
I had no idea what was going on the entire time but it went hard
Treasure's eyes are often too big for their stomach. For every Ikaruga, Mischief Makers, or Gunstar Heroes that feels excellent and plays like a well-oiled machine with flow state mastery available to you with "just-around-the-corner" closeness, there is an Alien Soldier, Guardian Heroes, or Silhouette Mirage: games so stuffed with controls and mechanics that it makes Paula Dean wet her eyes with envy.
There are just too many systems vying for your attention in this game. It's well-made, with good visuals and music, but even after beating it, the game's controls feel foreign to me. I love that Treasure tries to do things different with the genres they put their hands on; I love that this doesn't feel like a Mega Man game or a Castlevania game. But I wish it felt like something other than what it actually is.
There are just too many systems vying for your attention in this game. It's well-made, with good visuals and music, but even after beating it, the game's controls feel foreign to me. I love that Treasure tries to do things different with the genres they put their hands on; I love that this doesn't feel like a Mega Man game or a Castlevania game. But I wish it felt like something other than what it actually is.
I was originally gonna do a thing and I wasn't gonna rate this.
I got through the tutorial and then about, gosh, the first third of the first level? I got up until you fall through the floor and into a cave.
I um...I didn't get it, and I didn't like it. I could tell I wasn't going to want to put in the time to get it or like it. But also, I've been around the block enough times to recognize times that there is a lot here that I know is the sort of thing that people whose opinions I really respect would love.
I really want to like this game, but I just can't. You can't fake that stuff. But my desire to like it doesn't mean that I do, and I have to be true to myself and rate it how I feel.
I got through the tutorial and then about, gosh, the first third of the first level? I got up until you fall through the floor and into a cave.
I um...I didn't get it, and I didn't like it. I could tell I wasn't going to want to put in the time to get it or like it. But also, I've been around the block enough times to recognize times that there is a lot here that I know is the sort of thing that people whose opinions I really respect would love.
I really want to like this game, but I just can't. You can't fake that stuff. But my desire to like it doesn't mean that I do, and I have to be true to myself and rate it how I feel.
SILHOUETTE MIRAGE.
It's not a game for everyone, but the world would be a better place if it was.